Maui, HI: Property Tax — A Tiered System, and the Numbers We Won't Guess
Maui County does not run a single flat property tax rate the way some mainland markets do. It runs a genuinely multi-class system in which a property's tax bill depends heavily on how the county classifies its use -- owner-occupied primary residence, non-owner-occupied residential, short-term rental, long-term rental, hotel/resort, agricultural, and more -- with materially different rates per $1,000 of assessed value applied to each class. That structure is real, current, and confirmed across Maui County's own published materials and a dense cluster of local real-estate tax guides. What this page will not do is print a specific current dollar-per-$1,000 rate table for any of those classes: this site's research could not confirm one against a fully-loaded primary source this pass, and a direct attempt to fetch Maui County's own rate page while building this page failed as well. Rather than repeat a number lifted secondhand from a search-result title, this page explains the tiered mechanic honestly and tells you exactly where to confirm this year's certified figures.
A Classification-Based System, Not a Single Rate
Maui County's Real Property Tax Division assigns every parcel to a use-based classification, and the classification -- not just the assessed value -- drives the tax bill. Categories referenced consistently across Maui County's own "Real Property Tax Rates" page (mauicounty.gov/755), its "Classification for Tax Rate Purposes" page, its published Real Property Tax Certification for the current assessment year, and a cluster of specialist real-estate tax guides (Maui Real Estate's "Maui Property Tax Guide," Island Sotheby's International Realty, Sold Maui, Realty of Maui, Pacific Island Partners) include: Owner-Occupied, Non-Owner-Occupied, Short-Term Rental, Long-Term Rental, Hotel/Resort, Commercial, Industrial, Agricultural, and Conservation.
Each classification is taxed at its own rate per $1,000 of assessed value, and those rates are set annually by Maui County Council resolution -- meaning the table can and does change from one fiscal year to the next. This is a materially more complex system than a single townwide mill rate, and it means the single most important question for any Maui property isn't just "what's the assessed value," but "which class is this parcel assigned to, and does that match how it's actually being used."
Why Owner-Occupied, Non-Owner-Occupied, and Short-Term Rental Are Taxed Differently
This isn't an accident of the assessment system -- it reflects a deliberate, ongoing Maui County Council policy choice. Maui Now's 2022 coverage and Honolulu Civil Beat's 2024 piece, "Maui Council Holds Down Property Tax Rates For Local Homeowners," both confirm the Council has specifically acted in recent cycles to hold down or reduce rates for owner-occupied homes relative to non-owner-occupied and investment-class property. The stated logic is straightforward: tax local, primary-residence homeowners more lightly, and tax non-resident owners, investment property, and short-term rentals more heavily.
That policy choice sits directly alongside Maui's separate, much bigger short-term-rental fight -- Bill 9, the ordinance phasing out short-term rentals in "Minatoya list" apartment-zoned buildings, signed into law in December 2025 and still being actively litigated and legislated as of mid-2026. Property tax classification and Bill 9's zoning-based phase-out are two different mechanisms (one is a tax rate, the other is a use permission), but they point in the same policy direction: Maui County using multiple levers to discourage non-resident and short-term-rental use of housing stock relative to owner-occupied, long-term housing. Anyone evaluating a Maui property for short-term-rental income should treat both the tax classification and the current Bill 9 legal status as live variables to confirm, not settled facts.
The Owner-Occupied Class Has Its Own Internal Tiers
The owner-occupied classification itself is not a single flat rate either. Multiple sources -- including guides specifically titled around "Hawaii Property Tax 2026: Age-Tiered Home Exemptions by County" and repeated references across Maui-specific tax blogs to rate "brackets" or "tiers" within the owner-occupied class -- confirm that higher-value primary residences pay a higher marginal rate within that class, conceptually similar to how an income tax applies different rates to different portions of income. That's a genuinely more complex structure than a single owner-occupied rate applied uniformly regardless of the home's value.
A homeowner exemption must be filed with the county to qualify for owner-occupied treatment at all -- without it, a primary residence can default to a non-owner-occupied rate. Confirm current exemption filing deadlines and value-tier thresholds directly with the Maui County Real Property Tax Division before assuming a specific property qualifies or estimating which tier it falls into.
The Numbers We Won't Guess
In the interest of not printing a figure this site can't stand behind: the exact current per-$1,000 rate for any Maui County property classification -- owner-occupied at any value tier, non-owner-occupied, short-term rental, long-term rental, hotel/resort, agricultural, or any other class -- was not confirmed against a fully-loaded primary source while building this page. A direct attempt to load Maui County's own "Real Property Tax Rates" page (mauicounty.gov/755) failed with a proxy error during this research pass, the same failure mode noted throughout this site's underlying Maui research. Search results turned up several specialist guides with titles referencing "FY 2025-2026" and "2026/2027" rate tables -- among them Maui Real Estate's rate-update posts, Island Sotheby's, Realty of Maui, Luxury Real Estate Maui, and a rate-table PDF hosted by a Maui brokerage -- but none was readable as a confirmed primary source in this pass, and this page won't repeat a number pulled secondhand from a title or snippet.
The correct place to get this year's certified rate for a specific classification is Maui County's own "Real Property Tax Rates" page at mauicounty.gov/755, its companion "Classification for Tax Rate Purposes" page, or the county's own annually-published Real Property Tax Certification. The Maui County Real Property Tax Division can confirm both the current rate table and, if there's any ambiguity, which classification applies to a specific parcel.
Other Layers: GET, TAT, and the New Green Fee
Property tax is only one layer of Hawaii's tax exposure for an investment or short-term-rental property. Hawaii's General Excise Tax (GET) is a tax on business gross receipts -- structurally different from a conventional retail sales tax, though it's typically passed through to guests -- confirmed by the state Department of Taxation's own materials. A separate Transient Accommodations Tax (TAT) applies specifically to hotel and vacation-rental stays, and in 2025-2026 the state enacted a first-in-the-nation "Green Fee," effectively an increase to the TAT, to fund climate-resilience projects (Governor Josh Green's office; Kiplinger; HAWAIʻI Magazine).
Multiple 2026 sources describe the combined statewide hotel-stay tax burden (state and county TAT plus GET plus the Green Fee) as reaching roughly 18.5% -- but the precise Maui-specific line-item breakdown, and the exact combined rate for a given short-term-rental stay, was not confirmed via a single primary source in this research pass. Files.hawaii.gov/tax carries the state's authoritative current rate sheet and is the correct place to pull an exact figure before budgeting a short-term-rental investment.
What This Means When You Budget a Purchase
Three things are worth carrying into an offer on Maui. First, don't anchor a purchase budget to a rate you saw quoted on a brokerage blog or a search-result title -- confirm the property's assessed value and its current, certified classification-specific rate directly with the Maui County Real Property Tax Division. Second, if you intend to live in the home as a primary residence, file the homeowner exemption; if you intend to rent it short-term, confirm both its tax classification and its current legal status under Bill 9 before assuming today's rules or today's rate will still apply next year. Third, budget for the layered tax stack on any rental income -- property tax, GET, TAT, and the Green Fee are separate charges that compound, not alternatives to each other.
None of this is legal or tax advice. Maui County's classification rules and rates are set annually by Council resolution and can change from what's described here, and Hawaii's GET, TAT, and Green Fee rates are set at the state level and can also change. Confirm every current figure directly with the Maui County Real Property Tax Division, the Hawaii Department of Taxation, and a licensed Hawaii tax professional or CPA before making a purchase, budgeting a short-term-rental investment, or relying on any number here for a financial decision.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Maui County's classification-based property tax structure (owner-occupied, non-owner-occupied, short-term rental, long-term rental, hotel/resort, commercial, industrial, agricultural, and conservation, each taxed at its own rate per $1,000 of assessed value) is confirmed structurally by Maui County's own "Real Property Tax Rates" and "Classification for Tax Rate Purposes" pages at mauicounty.gov/755, its annually-published Real Property Tax Certification, and a cluster of specialist guides including Maui Real Estate's "Maui Property Tax Guide," Island Sotheby's International Realty, Sold Maui, Realty of Maui, and Pacific Island Partners. The Council's deliberate policy of holding down owner-occupied rates relative to non-owner-occupied and investment classes is sourced to Maui Now (2022) and Honolulu Civil Beat's 2024 piece "Maui Council Holds Down Property Tax Rates For Local Homeowners." The internal value-tiered structure of the owner-occupied class is sourced to multiple 2026-dated guides referencing age- and value-tiered exemptions and rate brackets. Bill 9 -- the short-term-rental phase-out in "Minatoya list" apartment-zoned buildings, signed into law December 15, 2025 and under active litigation and further legislation as of mid-2026 -- is confirmed via Maui Now and Honolulu Civil Beat reporting and is described here only as policy context for the tax-classification discussion, not as settled law; confirm its current status directly with the Maui Planning Department before relying on it. The General Excise Tax, Transient Accommodations Tax, and 2025-2026 "Green Fee" are sourced to the Hawaii Department of Taxation's own materials, Governor Josh Green's office, Kiplinger, and HAWAIʻI Magazine; the widely cited combined ~18.5% statewide hotel-stay tax burden is sourced to 2026 travel-industry reporting and is not a Maui-specific line-item figure. This page does not print a specific current dollar-per-$1,000 tax rate for any Maui County property classification: a direct attempt to load mauicounty.gov/755 while building this page failed with a proxy error, consistent with tool failures noted throughout this site's Maui research, and no other source was confirmed as a fully-loaded primary source in this pass. That is disclosed here as an open gap rather than filled in with an unconfirmed number. Tax classifications, rates, and exemption rules are set annually by Maui County Council resolution and by the State of Hawaii, and can change from what's described here. This page is independent research, not legal or tax advice; confirm all current figures directly with the Maui County Real Property Tax Division, the Hawaii Department of Taxation, and a licensed Hawaii tax professional or CPA before making a purchase, budgeting a rental investment, or relying on any number here for a financial decision.